God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of good and evil for they would surely die. Well, if we are talking literally, they didn't die at all and god didn't seem to care they ate it until he found out Adam ate it. So he was lying, didn't know what would happen, or was speaking metaphorically...odd for something so vital. (Thought he was omnipotent/omniscient) So it must be non-literal...here goes:

The death must be a spiritual death that to have consciousness of good and evil is like death. Now they have to rely on god the angry puppet master to do everything. So in summary, belief in god or a feeling of a need to believe in god is like death. Got it...I'll pass.

As I'm sure you know, there is a wide variety of interpretations and criticisms of the Garden of Eden myth (just as there is with so many other parts of the Bible). Believers quibble over things like whether they were immortal before eating the fruit, whether the fruit itself caused death or whether it was something Yahweh did... some believers even think the whole thing is a some kind of gigantic metaphor and that the original sin was the sex act. Being an atheist myself, I don't tend to give it too much thought except to point out that, as an explanation for why there is evil and suffering in the world, it fails. Badly.

Personally I go with "Genesis is Moses telling backstory," you know, to justify Moses saying anything worth hearing... and Moses was kinda dumb... but, you know, you have arrived. The journey is not so important in this case.

And for a being who is all-powerful and all knowing...he sure has some problems keeping order and sometimes even regrets things..human emotions.

Regretted making humans, needed a break after creation, told Noah he would not do that again (mass murder)...more regret. I guess he didn't mean he wouldn't commit any murder because he had his way with Sodom and Egypt later. Why does he need to make deals...eh hem...covenants with humans to do his bidding. Apparently he was walking in the Garden of Eden at one point because Adam was hiding from him.

Made different languages just to make life harder...then had his "holy doctrine" written in one language. I guess all of the non Hebrew folks were supposed to die and burn.

I'd love to hear from some theists on this...I'll pray that you can convince me and we can see if it works.

Just had to vent some stuff out. I've been spending some time in "the word" lately trying to figure out how I actually tried to live my life in that way and how anyone can read that document and see it as a good way to live. I know there are rosier parts but you can't ignore the rest.

Personally I go with "Genesis is Moses telling backstory," you know, to justify Moses saying anything worth hearing... and Moses was kinda dumb... but, you know, you have arrived. The journey is not so important in this case.

There was no Moses. Moses was a mythological character who existed in the culture of the Shiloh priesthood. (see upcoming LONG post out hopefully this weekend). Backstory ... absolutely. The question is, where did it come from. All of the "national" story pre Deborah, (in Judges) was mythological. She was the Mother of the Nation, and the first to unite the tribes. ALL else WAS "back-story". Great way to put it. The Genesis garden myth was about *Chaos and Order*. http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/forum/...ment+texts
Other than the early Genesis things, (which were added by the Judean priests when they were cooking it up in exile, sitting in the library of the Babylonian priests READING THEIR SHIT), it's all, and ONLY about politics. Internal politics, and external politics.

Insufferable know-it-all. God has a plan for us. Please stop screwing it up with your prayers.